Category: Productivity

How and why I’ve spent 377 hours listening to podcasts since June 2012

Bill Simmons - The BS ReportThat’s almost an hour a day. Yes, it’s made-up, but the real number isn’t far off.

I think everyone should listen to podcasts, and it’d be sweet to host my own someday. So let me explain how I got into them, why they’re so great, and which shows are my favorites.

How I got into podcasts

I’ve always enjoyed audiobooks. Audible is expensive but I’ve never regretted a purchase.

Like an Economist subscription or a Skritter membership, the price you pay pales in comparison to the value of what you learn. I’m a firm believer that knowledge – of any kind – increases life satisfaction and improves your view of the world.

Yes, it can make you more cynical at times, but ignorance is definitely not bliss. It’s just lazy. You wouldn’t operate on a sick patient or create a web app without learning everything you can about it, so why the heck would you take a hands-off approach to the bigger and tougher problem of understanding the world around you?

Plus, random knowledge makes me more interesting at cocktail parties, which I need since I’m good with cocktails and bad with social skills.

It wasn’t until recently that I began listening to podcasts. In some ways they’re better than audiobooks – they’re shorter and they’re free.

Podcasts have exploded in variety and quality, driven by smartphones, broadband, and marketplaces like iTunes. Like Spotify is doing for musicians and Kindle Direct Publishing is doing for authors, podcast creators (ranging from educators to comedians to entrepreneurs) can now reach a large audience and make enough money to support themselves.

Listening to podcasts used to be a hassle. I would search the internet haystack, find the mp3 needle, load it into iTunes, and sync it with my iPhone, all before I listened to a single second.

I’d often remember the podcast was in my phone after the fact, then mentally flog myself for spending half an hour driving in the car, listening to Selena Gomez or some mindless EDM crap, when I could have been using my time productively.

The Stitcher app removed all that hassle and made me into a podcast fanboy. I could easily find the best shows. Stitcher would automatically download them to my phone. The app would resume playback from where I was last.

Ironically, I switched from Stitcher to Apple’s Podcasts app in the last 6 months (the main reason: Stitcher has ads and Podcasts doesn’t), but I’d already spent 150 listening hours (Stitcher tracks that data) and it’d become a habit. Now I automatically open the Podcasts app when my ears have 5+ minutes to spare, like when I lift weights, or drive somewhere, or do laundry. It’s probably saved my life, because podcasts keep me awake when I’m driving home at 2am after carousing with friends. I like that word, carousing.

Why they’re great

You learn unique stuff. Since 90% of my reading time is spent on blog posts about startups or China, I don’t branch out much. But with the Podcasts app, I listen to everything from Dan Carlin discussing the Mongol rise under Genghis Khan to Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal predicting NFL lines to This American Life interviewing people at popular highway rest stops. It’s intellectual potpourri.

You learn in a different way. My preferred learning style is reading. That’s why I’m obsessed with clipping articles and with my Kindle ebooks. It’s also why in elementary school I was named the “person who always had a book in his hand”. You can tell I was quite the popular 3rd grader. Podcasts force me to learn by listening, which balances out the mindless feed-reading and email-surfing that I do on my laptop and stretches my brain.

You’re more productive in your downtime. This is a harder argument to make, because you could argue that downtime is necessary for your brain to relax and free-associate, which is why Gretchen Rubin has a rule that she doesn’t use her phone when she’s on the subway, bus, car, or taxi. She says it’s because all her best big ideas have come in that downtime. But its harder to argue listening to that Hardwell set for the 27th time is equally productive.

What I listen to

Every episode of these:

1. Bill Simmons’ BS Report (except when he discusses Breaking Bad, because I usually haven’t seen the latest episode…there’s too much good TV!)
2. Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History (in particular, his mind-blowing 5-part series on Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire)
3. 60-Second Mind and 60-Second Health (improve your life in 60 seconds? I’m there!)
4. New York Times Book Review (I skip the boring reviews)
5. This American Life (there’s something about Ira Glass’s voice and the way he tells stories)

Some episodes of these:

1. The Adam and Dr. Drew Show (I was obsessed with Loveline but this podcast is sometimes too “Adam Carolla bitch-fest”)
2. 60-Second Space, Earth, and Science
3. Freakonomics Radio
4. NPR: TED Radio Hour

Pick-and-choose from these:

1. Here’s The Thing with Alec Baldwin
2. Common Sense with Dan Carlin
3. The Dr. Drew Podcast
4. Dan Pink’s Office Hours

Occasionally, I’ll go through Loveline, This American Life, and Fresh Air with Terry Gross archives and download interesting episodes. I would share a list with you, but it’s a pain to find the right links and I usually delete the mp3s when I’m finished.

Starting today, I’ll keep a current page of subscribed podcasts. Check there for the latest, since there’s an ~5% monthly turnover.

Pretty please?

The worst part of podcasts is that if I hear something great, like this beautiful Jesus and MLK story, it’s difficult to clip that section, annotate it, and share it. Written text wins here. Can someone please solve this problem?

Alrighty readers

I hope you give podcasts a shot, and if you do, try the Podcasts app or Stitcher. Perhaps audiobooks will be the topic of a future post. Here’s one of my favorite audiobooks, courtesy of Tim Ferriss.

If you listen to great podcasts not mentioned here, please share. Thanks for taking 6 minutes to read this post!

If you’re talented, 5000 hours is enough (and if you’re not, even 10000 won’t cut it)

Dilbert - 10000 hoursMalcolm Gladwell popularized the idea that 10000 hours of practice are necessary to attain mastery in a range of skill-based pursuits (for example, chess, programming, basketball, journalism).

As a writer, one of Gladwell’s responsibilities is to turn nuanced concepts into simple messages. “10000 hours” is the perfect example. Its popularity has helped make Gladwell a household name and a “public intellectual”, one of those hand-wavy terms for well-known writers who weigh in on public-interest topics, but aren’t academics or politicians.

Of course, the devil is in the research details and after reading Practice Isn’t Everything, another great Wilson Quarterly article, I was compelled to share another perspective.

In 3 sentences:

Critics have lambasted the theory. What about the hard-working strivers who fall short, and the prodigiously talented people who practice less but shine anyway? Now the doubters have data to back them up.

In 5 bullets:

  • Researchers analyzed data from 14 studies of chess players and musicians
  • Among musicians, the best pianists had all practiced at least 10000 hours (supporting Gladwell and the original researchers), but some had required more than 30000 hours to get there. Whew
  • 25% of chess players achieved “mastery” in 7500 hours; 20% achieved mastery in less than 5000 hours
  • The number of hours spent practicing only accounted for 34% of the variation in chess player skill levels
  • What explains the remaining 66%? Starting age (younger is better), working-memory capacity (larger is better), and grit (more is better), among others

Here’s the full research paper. I’ve yet to read it closely.

It’s an understatement to say this is a complicated topic, but one that highly interests me. If you haven’t already done so, check out my 1-page cheatsheet of Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code, which also discusses how people become the best in the world at a particular skill.

July Books: The Power of Habit, Beta China

This month was RSS/bookmark catch-up, so I only finished 2 books. Here’s my Evernote which shows my non-book readings.

The Power of HabitPower of Habit by Charles Duhigg [Amazon]

One of my 2013 favorites. Here’s a 1-page cheatsheet.

Researchers have learned that cues can be almost anything, from a visual trigger such as a candy bar or a television commercial to a certain place, a time of day, an emotion, a sequence of thoughts, or the company of particular people. Routines can be incredibly complex or fantastically simple (some habits, such as those related to emotions, are measured in milliseconds). Rewards can range from food or drugs that cause physical sensations, to emotional payoffs, such as the feelings of pride that accompany praise or self-congratulation.

Beta China by Hamish McKenzieBeta China by Hamish McKenzie [Amazon]

I consistently enjoy Hamish’s PandoDaily posts: strong research, crisp syntax, and a clear point-of-view. Here’s a great example. This “special report” – unfortunately – misses his usual mark, but given the tough subject matter (for example, it’s an opaque business environment, and entrepreneurs speak limited English), and the low price ($1.99), I’d rate it a “buy”.

Until recently, their [big tech cos like Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Sina] preference was to raid the best talent from startups, copy the most successful products, and move on. They already controlled most of the distribution channels and could quickly push their own versions of products out to their existing user bases, which number in the hundreds of millions.

Here are previous months.

What have you read and loved? Please share! Thanks folks.

Jeff Bezos sharing some wisdom

…at the 2012 re:Invent fireside chat with Amazon’s CTO, Werner Vogels.

Full video here.

My sporadic notes here. Mostly his words, with some editorializing and annotation:

  • Flywheels are important (I take this to mean something that will gain speed over time)
  • Some things won’t change in 10 years – focus on those. For example: people will always want cheaper prices, faster & better service
  • If you’re ok being misunderstood for long periods of time, you can ramp up your rate of experimentation
  • It’s easy to invent new things that customers don’t care about
  • It’s all about rate of innovation (echoes Eric Ries and his quote about moving through the build-measure-learn feedback loop as quickly as possible)
  • Used to be 30% product, 70% promotion/service; now it’s 70% product, 30% promotion/service
  • Bezos does front line work from time to time, e.g. on factory floor, in call center
  • 10K year clock is about long-term thinking. If I asked you to solve world hunger in 5 years, you’d say no way. But if I asked you to solve world hunger in 100 years, you’d think about it. The problem is the same, but the timeframe has changed
  • If you wanted to catch a wave, you’ll never do it. What you should do is position yourself and catch the wave
  • Missionaries build better products. I’ll take a missionary over a mercenary any day
  • Passion and customer centricity will take you an awful long way